Monday, October 29, 2012

Washing the Man right out of your Hair

We saw South Pacific last week. It is a wonderful show and although I thought I had seen the movie, I had not as I remembered nothing of plot. The acting was terrific with Lisa McCune shining but for mine, and perhaps it is partly the character she played, Kate Cebrano was brilliant in her role as the Tonkinese street vendor, Bloody Mary.

The only thing that marred the evening was the atrocious seats at the Princess Theatre. I don't know if I could ever sit through another performance there.

26 comments:

Is the Princess the one where the Gods are up in the troposphere? Kate Cebrano, being a pro singer, would have been good value. Even with mics, the diff between a strong voice and a mediocre one is noticeable.

Brilliant movie - it is in the Classic section of DVD shops. I can't envisage it really being shown as well on a stage - the water scenes would be missing - 'Happy Talk' being one of the top tunes of the movie. Lisa McCune is good, but she sure ain't Mitzi Gaynor.Remarkable, almost a sacrilige that you haven't seen the original movie. I thought that like "Gone With the Wind", "Breakfast at Tiffanys", "The King and I", "My Fair Lady" and "The Sound of Music", everyone would have seen it.Kate Cebrano as "Bloody Mary" - looking at your photo, she is nowhere old enough to hold a candle to the original, Juanita Hall.Tut, tut, you surprise me so off you trot post haste to your DVD shop and get the original movie, some tomato juice, vodka, tabasco sauce, black pepper and lemon and sit back and enjoy!

Colin, Happy Talk was in the show. I don't think I ever want to hear Some Enchanted Evening ever again. I tried to watch Gone With the Wind, but it didn't catch me and I haven't seen Breakfast at Tiffanys. The last dvd I watched was in about 2005 but an excuse to have a Bloody Mary is tempting.

Good grief! I thought Melbourne was a prgressive city in the arts!And you admit to not having seen "Breakfast at Tiffanys"! And you TRIED to watch "GWTW"! Oh horrification has overwhelmed me, and I have no ingredients for a Bloody Mary, look out Scotch, here I come to regain some semblence of belief in humanity!And just for the record, I am humming away "Some Enchanted Evening"!!!!!!

I've "sort of" seen the movie, which means it has been on TV a few times and I've seen bits of it. I liked the bits I've seen, so I should probably buy the DVD and watch the whole thing. I'll add it to my list.

Hello Andrew:Oh, thoughts of South Pacific really do take us down memory lane though, sadly [or, perhaps happily] not at the Princess Theatre. 'Technicolor' and the big screen were the orders of the day and Mitzi Gaynor stole our hearts....everyone we seem to remember looked orange, but it mattered not!!!!

I saw this in Sydney. I agree with you that Cerberano was great: "Happy Talk" was the highlight of the show for me and her interpretation quite distinctive. My second-top pick was Daniel Koek and especially "Younger than springtime."

The problem with the movie was that it employed lurid colour effects during every song. The director admitted afterwards he regretted using the effect which ever since makes it look as if the film stock has started to deteriorate. I once saw a screening on Australian television where a notification appeared on the screen every time a song started along the lines of 'do not adjust your sets, the colour changes are part of the movie'.

By the way, the original Nellie Forbush (on Broadway) was Mary Martin, the mother of Larry Hagman (he of Dallas fame, as JR, and also earlier in I Dream of Jeannie).

The original Emile was Italian opera singer Ezio Pinza. Martin, who was a huge Broadway star - the original Maria Von Trapp, as well - demanded that Rodgers and Hammerstein not write any duets for them as she feared her voice would be drowned out by the strength of Pinza's voice. That is why they never sang simultaneously in the original production. The closest was 'Twin Soliloquies' where they sing lines in turn but not together.

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